and more SLEDDING!

Sled Train!

A few casualties at the bottom of the hill!

Kaeli Sledding

Sammy Sledding

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is here and gone. It's amazing all the preparation that goes into this special day, but before you know it it's over with. It's too bad Christmas can't last any longer. It's been fun to have the hubbs home from work, the kids home from school with no activities to run to. We've just been hanging out and enjoying each other's company.

Here's a picture of the kids in their Christmas clothes last Sunday:The kids left Santa some eggnog and moose balls for a snack. I love the little letter they wrote to him:
After opening presents we had a breakfast of crepes and hot cocoa...YUM, and then we had Christmas dinner later that evening. We like to eat :-) We usually have a mini-Thanksgiving meal:
We hope you all had a Merry Christmas! We appreciate the thoughtfulness of letters and gifts this time of year, so THANK YOU! Have a Happy New Year!

Shocking!

Aaron has been in Texas the last two weeks. He wasn't able to reserve a rental car before his flight there so when he arrived they were all out of cars...except for this stinky Mustang! I feel bad that he's stuck having to drive this junker all around Fort Worth. Poor guy.

Last night the kids were decorating the Christmas tree and I was going to take some pictures when I realized the flash was broken on my camera, and all the pictures were turning out to be dark shadowy nothings. I guess it's been dropped one too many times in the short amount of time that we've owned it. After the kids went to bed I decided to see if I could fix it. Our old camera used to stop working quite a bit and a few times after taking it apart and putting it back together again it worked! I love to take things apart, and I love even more to be able to brag about fixing something, so I was excited about opening this newer camera up. I unscrewed the impossible-to-see, itty-bitty screws with an itty-bitty screw driver and exposed the inner guts of the camera. I examined the flash a little more closely and wondered if I could pop the flash out to see if a bulb had broken. As I stuck my tiny screw driver behind the flash a bright light sparked and a surge of electricity sored through my body. I screamed and threw my camera (as if it wasn't broken enough before)! I was sure that my heart had been shocked out of rhythm...perhaps even skipped a beat or two. I sat down, still trembling (and feeling kinda funny inside) and called da hubbs to let him know I had just been electrocuted. Of course he laughed, and then tried to show some sympathy for me, but I could tell he was still fighting the urge to laugh some more. After hanging up, I went back to the camera and painstakingly screwed the impossible-to-see, itty-bitty screws back into the even-more-broken-than-before camera. My sadness was for my camera which was still broken and for my singed ego. By the way, does anyone know where you can take a broken camera to be fixed?

What? No tears? No hesitation?

Saturday morning brought much excitement to the Davis home! We were going to our ward breakfast party where it had been rumored that Santa would be the guest of honor! In previous years there was always the excitement, but it quickly dwindled the minute it became our kids' turn to sit on Santa's lap. There suddenly came some hesitation, some fear of that big guy in red! And babies? Forget about it! Just the thought of sitting on a stranger's lap brought tears. And if we still tried to prop them up with Santa for a quick snap shot the tears were combined with outstretched arms for mommy. It was pure torture. In fact, there were years where we opted to skip the Santa visit so the kids could continue to have a happy, not so threatening ideal of Santa. This year I decided to go for it any way...perhaps the kids were ready. Amazingly, there were no tears and not a single hesitation! The kids knew exactly what they wanted from Santa and they couldn't wait to tell him! And Sara? Because of the excitement of her siblings she decided that Santa must not be a bad guy. So she sat there wondering who exactly was this bearded man in red. And we had the first happy experience with Santa, with many more to follow I'm sure!

Here we are...all in RED and ready for some Ward Christmas Party FUN!

Rylie told us last week that she wanted a "sweet house" for Christmas. It took us awhile to figure out what she was referring to. She wanted her very own gingerbread house (more proof that she truly is my clone). So we made graham cracker houses (simply because true gingerbread houses aren't very simple). The kids had a blast decorating their houses...and sneaking samples, too!

Ready to move in? Home SWEET home!

Our little village of yummy houses...that we can't wait to EAT!

Gotta Love Dem Piggies!

Is it possible to take too many pictures of your kids? I obviously don't think so!

Thanksgiving

I know I am late posting about Thanksgiving, but I couldn't just pop into December without mentioning it! We went up to Dawn's (Aaron's sister) who lives about 1 hour north of us. Aaron's parents, sister, and grandma were there too. The food was great! We did a little shopping and even went to the Nutcracker...it was super neat!

The Apple Pie I make every year!

What? Christmas Stocking are hung...before Thanksgiving??? Let the Christmas Season begin!

Hike somewhere near Payson

On Saturday we drove down toward Payson for a little day hike. It was also a trip for exploring because I love the little towns near Payson. Any way, we hiked in the snow and MUD! It was funny to hear what the kids had to say as their feet got heavier and heavier as the wet sticky mud caked onto their boots. Luckily no one lost a boot in all that gunk. Despite the mud we had a lot of fun and it was so pretty. I love the way the aspen trees look in the snow. After the hike we topped it off with some of my mom's homemade cookies (she was visiting last week and of course made us some). To those of you who don't know...my mom's cookies aren't just some ordinary cookies. They truly are the yummiest, bestest, chocolaty-est cookies in the whole world. And she left me some frozen cookie dough balls in my freezer so I can bake 'em any time I want...yum! Here are some pictures from the hike:

Eating Gramma's cookies!

Miss Sara's Stats

Sara had her 2 year old check-up with the doctor this morning. Despite the cold she's fighting she's perfectly healthy, incredibly smart, and as cute as they come. What? You didn't know doctors checked for all those things? Well they do. She is only 22 pounds (which puts her in the 4th percentile for weight) and she's 34 inches long (which puts her in the 56th percentile for height). I know what all of you are thinking...she's tall and skinny like her mommy! You are so right :-)

Motocycle Madness

Sam and Aaron went dirt biking on Saturday. You can't tell me this isn't the cutest little dirt biker you've ever seen! Sammy looks like such a little man in these pictures. I can't believe how fast he's growing up!

Halloween!

We had a FUN Halloween yesterday! The kids and I explored the Hogle Zoo in SLC. It was a perfect day for it. It wasn't crowded and the weather was perfect. For dinner we had Boo Berry Pancakes...yum! And then we quickly got costumes on for TRICK-OR-TREATING! We teamed up with some neighbors and went to most of the homes in our neighborhood who had lights on. It sprinkled off and on but it still had to be the warmest Halloween I can remember. Sara was really getting the hang of it. She would make her way through the crowd of kids to the front door and either say, "treat!" or "some?". And then the person handing out the treats would comment on how cute or pretty or adorable she is and give her a heaping handful of candy (yah, because she really needs that much candy...). She would always say, "tank ooo" and leave with a big smile. It was way cute! The kids got way more candy than I know what to do with.

Fun at the Zoo!

Boo Berry Pancakes!

Harry Potter (aka, Pot-ta), Snow White, Cinderella, and a little Pixie Princess :-)

Our little GHOUL is TWO-oul!

Sara had a birthday yesterday! I can't believe it! Sara is such a sweet little girl who freely gives out hugs and kisses and "luv loo"s. Her siblings spoil her and give into her pouty lip as if it's the saddest thing they've ever seen. Sara also loves to be chased and squeals with delight (mixed with a little fright) as she races through the house looking as though she just might loose control and tumble...all in an attempt to escape a tickle or a nibble or a tummy zurbit. She also has the most contagious laugh...I love to hear her laugh! We love our Sari so much and we're so grateful she's part of our family.

Beginning the TERRIFIC TWOS!

So pretty.

Sometimes we call her "Tink" because she reminds us of our favorite little Pixie Tinkerbelle.

Sara also has a fiesty/sassy side!

For her birthday dinner Sara had 2 slices of a Veggie De-lite pizza from Papa Murphys with Root Beer. Her fave! Topped off with dark chocolate cake :-) (I think she may have inherited her mommy's appetite)

Stephanie's girls sing!

Claire and Jane sang a lullaby for their mom with Mindy Gledhill at a concert benefiting the family. Here's the link:
Golden Slumbers

Here's another article about Stephanie's recovery:
http://www.azcentral.com/community/mesa/articles/2008/10/27/20081027liv-stephanie1027.html

It's Carvin' Time!

Last night we carved our pumpkins! Everyone got their very one pumpkin. Can you guess which pumpkin belongs to which one of us?

Zions National Park

After we spent 2 nights at Bryce we headed to Zions.  The weather was perfect!  The HUGE orange mountains of rock are incredible!  Again...it was like nothing I'd seen before.  I'm convinced that Utah is one of the most beautiful states...now that I've seen the northern and southern parts.  I am always so content when I'm out camping or hiking with the family.  I love nature.  I love to watch the kids run around and find joy in the simple (yet truly amazing) things.  Here are some more pictures:

Dinner after a long day of hiking...YUM!

Sara, loving every minute on the shuttle bus!

Little mountain goats!

Those who know me well know that I'm a bit of a pyro.  Here is my tee-pee fire going up in flames.

Beware of GHOSTS!

We saw this sign a lot on our hikes.  Rylie read it out loud to us and said, "Be careful!  There are GHOSTS!"

Bryce Canyon National Park

Last week we went down to Southern Utah to camp as a family.  We camped at Bryce Canyon first.  What a beautiful area!  The land formations are really cool and like nothing I'd ever seen before.  If you've never been...you must plan to go!  We figured that since we were in Southern Utah that the weather would be just perfect for camping in the Fall.  Little did we know that Bryce Canyon is at 8-9,000 feet in elevation.  We were a wee bit cold.  Actually the kids slept really warm, it was mostly me who was cold :-)  Luckily, a kind retired couple from Seattle (they were camping right behind us) invited us into their RV to warm up in the mornings.  We ate pretty well on the trip but the desserts were my favorite...smores and peach cobbler!  Our second night in Bryce Aaron and I added boiling water to our water bottles and put them in our sleeping bags by our toes.  It helped for most of the night, but by morning I was freezing again.  It just happened to get down to 19 degrees that night...brrrrrr!  Here are some pics of our hikes:

Stephanie's Story

Read this story when you get a chance! It will really touch you and if you've been following the Nielson's story this article answers a lot of questions. After you read the article watch the video on the right of it:

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/10/26/20081026sisters1026a1.html

The Great Pumpkin Hunt!

It's Pumpkin Patch time again! Today was the perfect day for it! We set out in our sweaters to find the perfect pumpkins. The sun was shining and we ended up taking off our sweaters and enjoyed being in t-shirts again (probably our last time for awhile). Oh how I LOVE this time of the year! The kids have the next three weeks off (here in Utah we have year-round school with funky breaks throughout) so we plan to do lots of Fallish things. Here are my ADORABLE PUMPKINS!

Sara is cheesin' it up!

Above (L to R): Sam (8), Sara (almost 2), Kaeli (7), & Rylie (4).

Our best attempt at a four-kid pyramid! Sara is hanging on for dear life and Sam looks squashed!

I want to be a MOMMY when I grow up!

The kids in Rylie's preschool class dressed up for show and tell this morning. The theme: What do you want to be when you grow up. Rylie is wearing mommy-like clothes (a long skirt with a blouse tucked in) and an apron. What a cute mommy she is...and will be :-)